SOURCE: Rubin, Merle. “Clever Satire, Inspired Nonsense.” Christian Science Monitor (9 March 1993): 14.

In the following review, Rubin offers a mixed assessment of Japanese by Spring, faulting Reed for his “inability to comprehend the pervasive oppression of women in almost every culture.”

Fans of Ishmael Reed's pungent, fast-paced prose have understandably (if predictably) likened it to jazz. His writing has a spontaneous, improvisational feel: It's full of quick turns, surprises, and inventive digressions, mixing the arcane and the down-to-earth in the unforced style of a man who can think on his feet.

His new novel, Japanese by Spring, offers a guided tour of the groves—more aptly, the jungles—of contemporary academe, seen through the eyes of one hapless black junior professor struggling to achieve tenure.

Benjamin “Chappie” Puttbutt III is the first in a long line of Puttbutts stretching back to the American Revolution not to have followed the...